Posted on 08/16/2020 1:27:08 AM PDT by 11th_VA
Last weekend, President Trump did something unusual. He issued a memorandum authorizing states to tap the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) $70 billion Disaster Relief Fund to pay for enhanced unemployment benefits. The new benefits are intended to replace the $600-per-week pandemic relief benefit, paid out on top of regular state unemployment, that Congress passed in March and that expired at the end of July. The move came after talks between the White House and Congress to renew the federal unemployment benefit stalled out, and at a moment when the official unemployment rate in the U.S. is hovering around 10 percent and multiple states are going broke.
Diverting money from the agency that helps Americans recover from hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires to cover for failed negotiations with Congress may sound on its face like yet another Trumpian norm violation. But contrary to some of the unorthodox decisions Trump has made in the past — like reallocating $155 million from FEMA to pay for immigration detention centers at the southern border — this one makes some sense, because FEMA is already in the business of paying unemployment benefits.
FEMA’s Disaster Unemployment Assistance program exists to pay temporary benefits for people whose employment was “lost or interrupted as a direct result of a major disaster.” Presidents have frequently authorized Disaster Unemployment Assistance at states’ request. For instance, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico requested and received the assistance after Hurricanes Rita and Maria.
“FEMA funds have been used for Disaster Unemployment Assistance many times post-disaster,” Samantha Montano, an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, explained. “However if all states and territories chose to utilize this program during COVID it would be at a scale never done before.”
It would also be according to rules, and a payment model, never seen before. Normally, Disaster Unemployment Assistance is available only to people who aren’t eligible for regular unemployment insurance. But Trump’s executive order allows people to access FEMA funds on top of regular unemployment by calling some of the FEMA benefits as “lost wages assistance” rather than “Disaster Unemployment Assistance” — a technical sleight of hand that some legal commentators have called into question. However, people receiving less than $100 per week on unemployment — which could be about 6 percent of all unemployment insurance recipients, according to one estimate — won’t qualify for the additional assistance...
The first 4 states: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3874758/posts
I read something about that recently, a catch 22. If the states refused to take the money, they wouldn’t have ‘standing’ to sue. And the optics look bad as well - the RATs won’t di it
The Trump Team really knows how to make government work for the people instead of the other way round.
Democrats are totally useless. They have no idea how to negotiate for what they want and they aren’t smart enough to outmaneuver a New York Real Estate genius. I don’t care what they think will happen in the next election, it’s clear to me that President Trump has set them up for complete and total destruction.
Uh, Mr. President, we are in the middle of hurricane season...
“Uh, Mr. President, we are in the middle of hurricane season...”
So? If you know that then get prepared.
Very interesting.
Well. it is a sort of natural man made disaster.
By man made I mean the chicoms caused it.
That is what I was thinking. Covid is a disaster.
So you don't spend FEMA's resources on unemployment benefits.
FEMA has far more resources than you know.
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